Tippit Myth

[Bill Brown]

"If you read the explanation of why there was not enough time for Oswald to have done all the things that the Warren Commission credited him with doing between the time he entered the bus near the Depository and shooting Tippit, you would conclude that all the witnesses in the case had assembled on the morning of November 22 to synchronize their watches and take a pledge to check them at crucial moments as the day's events unfolded.

The reality is that, like the spring-driven clocks in most people's houses in 1963, what would have been the crucial clocks and watches probably varied in the time they showed by several minutes."

Larry Sturdivan
(The JFK Myths, 2005, pg. 179)

[John Corbett]

Exactly. Almost nothing Oswald did during the roughly 45 minutes between the time he shot JFK and the time he shot Tippit was time stamped. That includes his encounter with Officer Baker in the lunchroom. We know he shot JFK at 12:30 because that is the time showing on the Hertz clock above the TSBD. The next accurate time stamp was when a citizen used Tippit's radio to report the shooting of Tippit. Everything else is an estimate and many of those estimates were not even made at the time of the event. They were made when people were asked about it later. For example, Earlene Roberts was asked what time Oswald showed up at the rooming house. Her answer was ABOUT 1:00. People aren't in the habit of time stamping mundane events and when they make estimates, they usually round the time. Who would ever say "about 12:57"? Without accurate time records, no one can say what was or was not possible.

Prediction: Conspiracy theorists will largely ignore this post. They don't like to deal with issues that challenge their preferred narrative.

[Martin Weidmann]

Exactly. Almost nothing Oswald did during the roughly 45 minutes between the time he shot JFK and the time he shot Tippit was time stamped. That includes his encounter with Officer Baker in the lunchroom. We know he shot JFK at 12:30 because that is the time showing on the Hertz clock above the TSBD. The next accurate time stamp was when a citizen used Tippit's radio to report the shooting of Tippit. Everything else is an estimate and many of those estimates were not even made at the time of the event. They were made when people were asked about it later. For example, Earlene Roberts was asked what time Oswald showed up at the rooming house. Her answer was ABOUT 1:00. People aren't in the habit of time stamping mundane events and when they make estimates, they usually round the time. Who would ever say "about 12:57"? Without accurate time records, no one can say what was or was not possible.

Prediction: Conspiracy theorists will largely ignore this post. They don't like to deal with issues that challenge their preferred narrative.

Without accurate time records, no one can say what was or was not possible.

And yet here you are basically telling us what was possible based on the assumption that the Hertz clock and a time stamp on a questionable DPD recording were accurate. Go figure!

[Michael Capasse]

  Nobody knows what time it is in Dallas, 1963.
Yet, wall clocks were electric and mechanical watches were accurate within 10-30sec. on a day

[Bill Brown]

Nobody knows what time it is in Dallas, 1963.
Yet, wall clocks were electric and mechanical watches were accurate within 10-30sec. on a day

So then the Dallas Police dispatch verbal time stamps are indeed accurate.  I agree.

[John Corbett]

Without accurate time records, no one can say what was or was not possible.

And yet here you are basically telling us what was possible based on the assumption that the Hertz clock and a time stamp on a questionable DPD recording were accurate. Go figure!

I'm not making any assumptions regarding the timing. My beliefs are based on physical evidence that places Oswald in the sniper's nest when JFK was shot and at 10th and Patton when Tippit was shot. It is the conspiracy theorists who try to make the argument that it would have been impossible for Oswald to be at 10th and Patton when Tippit was shot. To make that argument, they treat every time estimate as if it is an established fact. That makes no sense. Without ACCURATE time stamps, such calculations are an exercise in futility.

The shells found in the sniper's nest could only have been fired by the rifle found on the 6th floor to the exclusion of all other weapons in the world and for which there is ample evidence Oswald owned and used the rifle. The shells found at the scene of the Tippit murder could only have been fired by the revolver Oswald had in his possession when arrested to the exclusion of all other weapons in the world. That argument does not depend either on the accuracy of the Hertz clock or of the DPD log.